118 I'JKLU SHOOTING. 



York. The most I ever killed in a day there 

 was six. In Cook County, Illinois, I have killed 

 fifteen in a day. In Missouri, on Shoal Creek, 

 when I was hunting turkeys, I found ruffed grouse 

 in fair numbers, considering the nature and habits 

 of the bird, and killed forty or fifty in the 

 three weeks I stayed there. Of all the places 

 I know, the ruffed grouse ^are most plentiful in 

 the timber-lands of Wisconsin and Minnesota and 

 the upper part of Michigan. But it is a bird of 

 very secluded habits, and when settlements have 

 become thick and much of the timber has been 

 cleared off, it disappears. A well-watered timber 

 country, with plenty of thick underbrush among rifts 

 and gullies, is the place to look for it as a com- 

 mon rule, though they are also found in the great 

 woods of heavy-timbered bottom-land. In looking 

 for ruffed grouse especially I use No. 8 shot, and, 

 if I found them while turkey-shooting, I changed the 

 cartridge. I do not use spaniels now, but shoot 

 ruffed grouse over setters. They will lie pretty well 

 to the dogs sometimes, and where not shot at will 

 sometimes strut off in front of him in plain sight. 

 When shot at much and wild, the ruffed grouse must 

 be pointed by the dog from a considerable distance. 

 It will not let him get close, and as soon as the 



